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Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

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Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#571

Post by saint_fiasco »

NhanH wrote: post #230
_red wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. However a counter-point is that its quite possible that they are trying to pivot reddit into a mainstream site, and thus are more than willing to burn most of the current user base. They don't need/want hard-hitting questions during AMA's, nor do they want freaky fetish subreddits, nor long winded post describing the intricacies of the Federal Reserve. They want cat pictures, pictures of freshly baked cakes,…

Reddit is already mainstream by any sense of the words. The reason it's full of hateful, annoying etc. people is because that's how anonymous human behave. Reddit is not a super secret group that only hateful bad apple knows about. You can try to clamp down the bad content, but alienate the user base will end up badly because there will be no one left to join.

>because that's how anonymous human behave

You mean pseudonymous humans? Reddit has a karma system, people can see your comment history and so on.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#572

Post by Mahn »

kzhahou wrote: post #566

Ellen Pao has zero trust from the community. A lot of people said this was because Pao is a woman and reddit is sexist. But then explain this reaction to Victoria. Here's a thought: the reddit community despises Pao because Pao is in no way part of the community . She's a bizdev-turned-investor corporate suit who seemingly came out of nowhere to now run the site. She's posted very few times since becoming interim CEO…

I have no inside information on Reddit management, but as an outsider who's watched reddit grow over the years, I get the impression the core problem with Reddit right now is not Ellen Pao per se. Ellen Pao was brought in as a person to run Reddit as a business and make money and that's exactly what I presume she is trying to do, the issue here is the vision of the company as a whole, the people (investors, shareholders?) who thought Ellen Pao was a necessary and good candidate to be the CEO.

Investors, shareholders, founders, etc seem to have a very clear vision of turning Reddit into a money making machine, but no matter how you slice it this is not going to work out well with their community in the long run. It doesn't matter if Ellen Pao or Mark Cuban is the CEO as long their vision stays that way.

Not that there is anything wrong with a business wanting to make money, but in my humble opinion, Reddit is a particularly bad candidate for that and would be much better off adopting a non-profit model ala Wikipedia.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#573

Post by eclipxe »

orbitur wrote: post #538
eclipxe wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tide changed with Pao. All of those were roadblocks, but never had the community turned so swiftly against the admins until Pao arrived. There's an entire subreddit dedicated to denigrating Pao. kn0thing has had missteps but generally has had the respect of the community. The community largely does not respect Pao.

> The community largely does not respect Pao Any criticism I've read seems to be based around how she's a woman and she used her womanness to get ahead. Nothing she has done as the CEO of Reddit is evidence of the need for the awful insults and copypasta I've seen lobbed at her. And these aren't hidden in the recesses of MRA subreddits, they're the top comments on any thread with any mention of Pao.

Nothing to do with her being a woman and it sucks to even bring that up - it makes no difference. I'm speculating here, but I think the problem is largely that Pao is an ex-lawyer, wealthy investor that is married to a hedge fund manager. Reddit being a largely liberal/young/mass appeal/quirky internet subculture collective (at least at it's core) would see any ex-lawyer, wealthy investor married to a hedge fund manager as an outsider. She comes off as an "out of touch 1%'er" that is there to make the site more corporate and "safe" for advertisers, ruining its culture to make herself even richer. It doesn't help that she apparently doesn't even know how to use the site.

It's like being a software engineer and getting a new manager that previously worked at Goldman Sachs, wears expensive suits to the office, asks you for help using Microsoft Word, but then tells you to switch from IntelliJ to Borland JBuilder because he owns some shares in Borland. He doesn't get the culture, he's an outside and is making decisions to actively ruin your environment. That's how it feels.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#574

Post by dagw »

kefka wrote: post #553
pjc50 wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usenet was decentralised, and therefore utterly unable to deal with spam and abuse. That's a problem any distributed system will have to face too.

There were techniques we were working on prior to the ISPs neglecting them. One such technique was a crypto method, similar to what has been recommended in reducing spam in emails. The client has to do some lengthy crypto transform for the message(and NG) they send. On average, it would take .5 sec to generate per message. Small amounts of messages would get through, but spammers would be unable to bulk-send without…

Even in worst cases, you're utilizing a slow computer for a second or 2. Solves the spam issue.

Not really. 300 messages a day would only be a few minutes of compute time and could seriously disrupt a large number of small group.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#575

Post by swalsh »

fit2rule wrote: post #419
blhack wrote: post #33

It's kindof astonishing what is happening over at reddit right now. "The internet" has it's own culture, and the people running reddit right now (one of the places where this culture is the strongest, imo), seem to have no idea how to interface with it. It honestly feels like it got taken over by silicon valley middle management marketing types or something, and now they just can't seem to figure out why the users ke…

We've seen this happen time and time again : USENET, Compuserve, to some degree .. AOL .. slashdot .. kuro5hin .. etc. etc. Those who fail to study their Internet history are doomed to repeat it, it seems. I've never been content with the centralized nature of Reddit as an Internet forum - for me this moment of truth has been bound to occur.

Its really crazy actually. Large scale communities seemed doomed to experience a period of mass exidous, or rebellion. Though the subreddit feature I think played a big part in delaying it, it would seem to be coming more likely an inevitability. I think the only saving grace for Reddit right now is there's not a very clear exit point. Voat as a Reddit clone populated by the skurge of reddit, and fleeted with technical problems doesn't seem likely to take the flag next.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#576

Post by swalsh »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #288

One thing I find amusing about the whole history of social networks is that by far, 4chan has been the longest running consistent platform and with the least governance. There is something to be learned there, not sure what it is though. edit: Actually metafilter is older, but way less popular/influential.

It would seem that it has something to do with the ambiguity of ethics on the site. Things such as can we charge for posts, can we moderate content we disagree with etc.

4chan happens to be the least ambiguous community

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#577

Post by pervycreeper »

kefka wrote: post #553
pjc50 wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usenet was decentralised, and therefore utterly unable to deal with spam and abuse. That's a problem any distributed system will have to face too.

There were techniques we were working on prior to the ISPs neglecting them. One such technique was a crypto method, similar to what has been recommended in reducing spam in emails. The client has to do some lengthy crypto transform for the message(and NG) they send. On average, it would take .5 sec to generate per message. Small amounts of messages would get through, but spammers would be unable to bulk-send without…

Today, we have cryptocurrency, which is a better way of accomplishing the same thing.

Re: Front Page Subreddits Go Private in Response to Firing of Reddit Admin

#578

Post by meesterdude »

antjanus wrote: post #262
keithwhor wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within the next two weeks we're going to see just about every Reddit clone and/or variation that exists spring into action. One of them will be lucky enough to gain enough traction to replace Reddit, though it will take a couple of years for the transition to complete. I have next to no doubt that these are the death throes of Reddit. I'm not personally invested in these politics (though it is fascinating to watch un…

I'm sure there will be a hundred clones. I do hope someone will just try a brand new way of doing content and people will be like "Oh yeah! That works really well!" I've been disillusioned with reddit when I saw that the niche subreddits no longer get updated :/ and the bigger subreddits are ruled by an iron fist of mods. The content doesn't refresh as often as I'd like either (in the 2nd tier subreddits, the ones th…

> I do hope someone will just try a brand new way of doing content

I am with mine, and I encourage others to follow suite and try different tactics. Reddit is hardly the gold standard; but it is not without it's merits either.

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